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Publisher's Summary

It was a dark and stormy night when Mary Crane glimpsed the unlit neon sign announcing the vacancy at the Bates Motel. Exhausted, lost, and at the end of her rope, she was eager for a hot shower and a bed for the night. Her room was musty, but clean, and the manager seemed nice, if a little odd.

This classic horror novel, which inspired the famous film by Alfred Hitchcock, has been thrilling people for 50 years. It introduced one of the most unexpectedly-twisted villains of all time in Norman Bates, the reserved motel manager with a mother complex, and has been called the "first psychoanalytic thriller."

What a book! This is a great example of a classic horror/thriller novel. "Psycho" will pull you in from the start even if you have already seen the movie and know what to expect. The story is detailed, holds your attention and is easy to follow. The narrator did a great job and really added to the suspense. I admit, I got chills during certain parts. Things just get crazier and crazier as you move along. This is definitely a fun and exciting listen.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

sophieinwonderland

Australia

22/02/09

Overall

"We all go a little crazy sometimes"

It's pretty hard to accept the Bates Motel as a great holiday destination after the impact of the film of Psycho. But even if you come to this after seeing the film this is a great listen. It's pulp horror but is surprisingly psychologically minded with well drawn characters, especially when you remember it was written in 1959. I always felt the main difference between the book and the film was in the casting of Anthony Perkins. Norman in the book is a lot less savoury. The narration is excellent and I really enjoyed this. It's also fun to listen to again when you know what's really going on. Highly recommended

25 of 27 people found this review helpful

Jim "The Impatient"

Springfield, MO, United States

28/10/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"THIS IS THE AGE OF HI-FI"

EVERY NAIL SERVES A PURPOSEScary wise this is not as good as most horror books of today. That does not change the fact that it is a well written book. It was entertaining and kept my attention all the way through. There are some interesting well developed characters in this book.

YOU HAVEN'T THE GUMPTIONI think all of us have times in our lives when we want to crawl in a nice warm hole and just hibernate. Norman Bates is scared of people and all he wants in life is to be warm, cozy and safe. I have a friend who is extremely active in society, an extrovert. He admitted to me once that occasionally, he draws the curtains, stays in his pajamas and does not leave the house for maybe a week. I think all of us, can see a little of ourselves in Norman Bates.

IT WAS NICE TO BE 7FT TALLThis book also hits one of my pet peeves. Some people always talk about the past like it was so much better then today. This book shows a little bit about what life was like in the 50's and early 60's. A male dominated society, where the best most women could do was marry a successful man. It was harder to get divorced in those days, and I believe there were a lot of unhappy marriages. I believe there were a lot of unhappy people in those days and that is not counting the blacks, Jews and other minorities. There also seemed a fascination in the early 60's with psychology. We went from, it was a secret if you saw a psychiatrist, to it was the In thing to do. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were the main stars and all there movies showed the sadness of society of the time.

One other thing, this is another one of those books where the main character has a weight problem, but in the movie is portrayed by a skinny actor.

I liked the narrator, the private eye spoke so slow you could hear the moss grow on his vocal chords, but all other characters were great.

22 of 24 people found this review helpful

StealyDan

Northern Virginia, United States

09/04/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Has anyone not seen the film?"

What did you love best about Psycho?

Hitchcock was pretty loyal to the book, other than casting -- Norman is a different age and body type than Anthony Perkins, and Martin Balsam plays Arborgast considerably different than the book's character. It's so difficult to not "see" the film while listening to the book, but, fortunately, they pretty much follow the same path.

The performance is very good. The reader makes subtle changes in voice, just enough to let you know it's a different character.

15 of 18 people found this review helpful

Henry Jenkins

Kirkland, WA

30/11/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"The story you love, but badly done"

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Reading the book satisfied my curiosity about the film adaptation process, but here's the short version. Bloch came up with a very interesting sequence of plot points, which Hitchcock copied. All but a few of the key moments of the film are here. However, and this is really not a contradiction, Bloch had no idea how to tell a story. His pacing could not be worse. He breezes past large swaths of the plot, then labors forever on the characters' most tedious qualities (Lila's whining, Sam's stoicism, Norman's simpering about his mother.) I ended up disliking everyone by the end of it. A short five hour audiobook went by in slow motion. The gender stereotypes have dated badly, and the increased gore made the story ickier without being more interesting.

Would you ever listen to anything by Robert Bloch again?

I am a little curious what other plots the writer of Psycho came up with, but not curious enough to sit through more of his writing. I'll read the Wikipedia synopsis.

Did Paul Michael Garcia do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

He did give every character a distinctive voice, but that only confirmed how grating a lot of the personalities were. It's always hard for men to voice romantic female leads, but oh boy, he made Lila a pill.

Could you see Psycho being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Did you seriously just ask me, "Could you see Psycho being made into a movie or a TV series?" Yes. Both.

Any additional comments?

Read the print copy. That way you can skim the monologues and avoid having to actually listen to the dialogue.

13 of 18 people found this review helpful

Dubi

New York, NY

14/11/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Inside Norman Bates"

On the surface, Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Psycho is very faithful. But Hitchcock's most significant departure from Robert Bloch's blueprint is most telling -- Hitchcock starts with the second chapter, Marion Crane (Mary in the book) fleeing after embezzling money and ending up at the Bates Motel. This creates a plot structure considered innovative -- a movie focused on a character who is killed off halfway through, shifting to another character who was not even introduced for the first twenty minutes.

The novel is more conventional -- Norman is the sole protagonist from the start, Mary really no more than a temporary intruder into his world. The novel is also more conventional in dramatizing the internal struggles of Norman -- we see him from the inside, rather than the outside-in view of the movie (although Anthony Perkins does a remarkable job of depicting him from the exterior).

So even though we know what is going to happen every step of the way, the novel actually offers a much different perspective. Hitchcock was truly a master of suspense and visually virtuosic. While not rising to the same level of all-time masterwork, Bloch's novel is still worth reading for it's psychological examination of Norman (vs. Norma, vs. normal).

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Beau

Marietta, GA, United States

12/04/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"15% more detail than the movie, maybe."

Reading a book based on a movie that's already in my top-ten thrillers of all time; it just seemed like a great idea at the time.

But here's the problems. The book didn't just inspire the movie, it was the movie. The only parts missing were probably left out to keep the movie under 2 hours; in that, they weren't that vital to the story, and they only added little bits of insight to the already fantastic story.

So, if you've seen the movie? If you've seen the movie a lot of times, and watched the sequels, and the Vince Vaughan remake? The book will probably shine very little light onto what you already know about the tale.

The narrator did a good job, good enough. Lila, (Lily?) sounded like the biggest whiner in the world, which I initially thought was just the way this narrator thought women talked, but, after reading a few reviews on Goodreads as well, nope, it's not him, it's totally that the character is a whiny lady.

Also - if you're in search of as many cliches as possible, specifically in characters, dialog, and tropes, this is the book for you. (Of course, it's entirely possible that the book, written in 1960, quite possibly set the standard for a lot of those things.)

So - long story short, if you loved the movie so much that you became almost obsessive over it, this book will shed very little light on anything... and actually drags in some areas, even though it's a relatively short novel.

Last thing - the ending, or last chapter, or epilogue - wow it just goes on and on forever, like Bloch got tired of writing the story and just put together some bullet points to wrap the story up. I didn't make it all the way to the end.

10 of 15 people found this review helpful

crazybatcow

East Coast, Canada

12/04/11

Overall

"Finally got to read this classic"

I can't believe it took so long for me to read this "classic" book. It's better than I expected, and perhaps a bit less dramatic than the movie (hard to be gory in this era I suppose).

It does not have any "surprises" but, that's probably due to the storyline being part of our modern culture... there's not much odd about transvestites or murderers or schitzos in our current day and age but, for its time, these concepts were probably extra-shocking.

I disliked the "epilogue" - way too lecturey, like the author needed to explain all the threads from the story rather than let us figure it out on our own - like we didn't realize Bates wasn't *really* his mother. Well, until the final moments anyway... hehehe

The narrator was very good.

10 of 15 people found this review helpful

Gudrun

Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, Canada

18/04/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Norman Bates was the best thing in this book"

This book was disappointing in all areas apart from any parts with Norman Bates. Bloch did a great job of portraying the character of Bates and any parts with him present completely held my attention. Unfortunately the other characters were very lack lustre. The famous shower scene was much more effective and chilling in the film.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

Eleanor

08/12/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Not as scary as the movie but equally as good"

What was one of the most memorable moments of Psycho?

The final scene where mother completely takes over.

Which character – as performed by Paul Michael Garcia – was your favorite?

Definitely the mother character!

If you could take any character from Psycho out to dinner, who would it be and why?

No one? The characters are fascinating and enjoyable to read but I don't think I'd like any of them in person!

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

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